This invention relates to border protection between two countries or bounded areas; and, more particularly, to a method and system for advanced electronic border protection using a buried fiber-optic cable in which high voltage conductors are enclosed within the same cable sheath. This allows electrical power to be supplied throughout the length of the border without requiring power sources located at intermediate points along the length of the border.
One of the challenges in protecting borders is that borders usually involve long distances, covering a wide variety of terrains (flat, rolling, mountainous, sandy, packed earth, rocky, forested, water, swampy or marshy, etc.). Further, much, if not most, of a border usually stretches through remote and uninhabited areas. As a consequence, available electric utility service, installation of above ground monitoring equipment and underground sensors, system security, and the maintenance and repair of remote electric power generators to power the monitoring equipment and sensors, as well as ground radar, if it is employed, is scarce and cost prohibitive to install and maintain.
The method and system of the present invention utilizes a hybrid fiber-optic underground cable which includes a high voltage conductor which conducts electricity within the same cable sheath regardless of how the sheath is insulated. At each end of a border, high voltage power, for example, 13,300 VAC is introduced into the cable in parallel with the optical fibers making up the cable. This power is then tapped or utilized throughout the length of the cable to power remotely located sensors and monitoring equipment, transmit their output signals to one or more monitoring sites, and power auxiliary equipment installed along the run of the cable.
Remote surveillance systems are known in the art. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,051,356, and 8,319,833, both of which issued to the same inventor as the current application. However, these systems, while effective, are directed to surveillance and security at only one site rather than along the entire length of a boundary or border.